Cost Of Doing An Ag?

[raven19]

quick answer = $1/L

No scrimping on ingredients either. Yes I am a bulk grain buyer.

+1 here. slightly more or less for big/highly hopped beers or milds respectively.

Jump in and go for it.

 

[MarkBastard]

Either way your first AG is going to cost a certain amount.

It gets cheaper if you do bulk buys of grain sacks and bulk buys of hops from the US and all that, but that isn't really pertinent information for someone new to it.

Go to craft brewer, add 4kg of grain to your shopping cart, about $17. Add about $10 for 90g of hops (even if you don't use them all. Now at $27. Add a cheap packet of dry yeast and you're over $30 easy. That's only including the three main ingredients.

 

[zebba]

Plus you get the hobby factor as well. At least this is a productive hobby.

If I take the cost of the ingredients, and subtract the cost of doing something else as enjoyable with my spare time, I reckon I'm coming out well ahead. The hobby factor is the biggest factor to me. I've never been concerned with the money I spend on beer, as ignoring the odd bender I don't drink that much. But I REALLY enjoy things like cooking, so beer making with it's various techniques, knowledge requirements, and imagination (in recipe formulation, use of limited equipment, etc) really rocks my socks. The finished product is just icing on the cake.

But to answer the question... Extract brews I was looking at >$2/litre (and even over $3). Now that I've started working with close-enough-to-all-grain, that has dropped a little. I think my last brew was about $35 for 23lt. And with a mill on the way and with it the ability to buy larger amounts of grain, that will drop again.

 

[drsmurto]

Do you have an esky and at least 1 pot 15L or larger?

A kitchen sieve?

It depends on what size batches you want to make but doing half batches or split boils can get you to AG with what you likely already own without spending a cent on equipment.

Fill in your location so the locals know where about you live and you'll get an invite to a brewday to see it all done.

 

[Lilo]

I too have a race car and I can tell you for the cost of a new block and say some decent headers you will have more beer than you can poke a checkered flag at. Unlike cars that like to break things more than once with AG brewing, if you buy well and quality gear, the gear will literally last you a life time.

Cheers

Chap Chap

Is that why its in the shed dustin over.......

The Car that is not Sherminator.... It, I note is allways nice and shiny

 

[gjhansford]

I actually spend a bit of time a while back creating an Excel Spreadsheet that calculated the cost of the ingredients for making AG brews. Based on buying my ingredients from Ross at Craft Brewer.

Of course it assumes the water is free which in today's world isn't actually true, doesn't include the little extras like yeast nutrients and Irish Moss, nor the gas and electricity or the dispensing gas ... or the equipment cost.

It was just a fun thing to do (that tells you how nerdy I can be) but it was a slow day at work and while it wasn't as good as actually making beer it was beer related.

For what it's worth ... here it is:

View attachment Brew_Cost_Calculator.xlsx

ghhb

 

[Peteoz77]

$1/L is just about right on. If I wasn't spending $6 on Gas, it would be even cheaper. But here's the killer.... I have spent around $3000 on the entire setup. I have 13 kegs, 3 fridges, 6 Perlick taps, 9 fermenters, a big mill, 2 Kettles and a Gas Ring, etc. plus brewing area on the back pergola. Sounds like a lot right?s,

Well I used to purchase a little over 2 cases of Carlton a week, so I spent roughly $4500 per year on beer. Now I spend less than $20 per week...that's $1040 a year, so I am saving $3500 a year. Paid for a awesome setup with one year's savings

Your results may vary

 

[beerDingo]

My last brew cost me around $61 to make 65 litres (or 8.125 slabs of beer). NOT including equipment costs.

This is buying bags of grain(and milling), some imported hops from US, and 1 pack of liquid yeast(with starter). (also used some home grown hops, but wouldn't push it much higher if i didn't). Also added a little extra for misc ingredients (irish moss, water...).

As others have said, it depends on what you are brewing. When I started AG, I was able to get a slab for around $10, but that cost could blow way out to around $40-$50 per slab depending on the ingredients. This was buying all ingredients from the LHBS.

Edit: Although, probably add $10ish for gas.

 

[mattmelloy]

I have 1 AG under my belt and I'm starting with 10L batches. It's probably not the cheapest way per litre, but it's got me started with minimal equipment outlay. My theory is, while I'm learning, the smaller the batch, the smaller the f*** up. It should also allow me to experiment with many different recipes in a shorter time.

Too much beer, too little time/bottles (what a problem ).

 

[bimbo]

I'm with MattMelloy, just started and doing 12Lish batches.
Found the All Grain for 30 bucks and thought i'd give it a go. 20 bucks for a 20L pot from Big W and another 6-7 bucks for a suitable bag and off i go.
I bought enought grain, hops, yeast and other bits for $30 which was enough to make 23L (2x11 or 12L batches) of the infamous DS Golden Ale.
I figured this was if i stuff up big time i am only wasting $15 plus time on each batch and learning along the way.

Cheers
James

 

[kuzzy]

I'm in Brissy - I think I just changed it in my profile..........

 

[Snow]

I buy my base grain in bulk (incl Marris otter etc) and I just worked out that an average pale ale (eg ESB, APA, CSA, etc) costs me around $23-25 ber 24L batch, including the price of LP gas. I get around 5 uses out of one pack of yeast, which helps. My most costly brew so far is an imperial vanilla bourbon porter, which cost me around $65 for 23L, soon to be surpassed by my BABBs "winter warmer" mash paddle brew - a Russian imperial chocolate vanilla oatmeal stout

Cheers - Snow.

 

[Crusty]

Done some calculations on a single batch of 23 litres, James Squire Golden Ale Clone. I end up with around 20 litres of finished beer after transferring & filtering. $40.38 = $2.02 per litre.
Commercial equivalent $60.00 for 24x345ml bottles = $7.24 per litre.
I can't even drink the commercial stuff anymore. Those poor uneducated soles scoffing down endless litres of megaswill have no idea how bad the commercial stuff is till they taste an All Grain. I've got quite a few converts in my street.

Crusty

 

[Boots]

Not sure what ProMash does but Beersmith gives you the total cost of ingredients for each batch (assuming you enter the relevant information). I just did my first batch in bloody ages and the price for a 35L batch worked out at $55ish. That was with no bulk buys at all, 65% efficiency with a few diff malts on a 1048 SG batch with about 140g of hops (an all ekg ale). Wyeast smack pack etc.

Ignoring gas and sundries such as sanitiser it still comes in at $1.68/L and it was done very inefficiently (being my first brew in years I left a heap of sugars behind in the mash tun) with no regard to cost.

Doing an all base malt brew with high AA bittering and 30g of a noble or aroma hop at the end must work to be bloody cheap.

 

[sid]

mine works out around $1.30 a 750ml bottle.....................But in my tightness to save a $ and still make a good beer I will try to roast my own grain and I should drop that under a $1............hopefully

 

[State of the Mind]

Yeah, I found that the ingridients (so long as you are not using expensive import malts) were cheaper when AG brewing than when using malt extract.

 

[kuzzy]

Thanks for that. As I am time poor I will be doing double batches - so the set up costs providing I don't get to carried away (pick up cheap evilbay etc) should be no major issue.


40L electic urn for heating the strike water?

50L eskie should be big enough with a manifold for mashing?

And for the boil either a 50L keg - brought legit, or a 60 to 80L pot with gas heating - what would one suggest?

Weld up a three level platform so it all drains by itself?

Does this sound good - or should I keep looking / asking?

New to all of AG, so sorry if I ask dumb questions.

Cheer,

Kuzzy

 

[jyo]

Thanks for that. As I am time poor I will be doing double batches - so the set up costs providing I don't get to carried away (pick up cheap evilbay etc) should be no major issue.


40L electic urn for heating the strike water?

50L eskie should be big enough with a manifold for mashing?

And for the boil either a 50L keg - brought legit, or a 60 to 80L pot with gas heating - what would one suggest?

Weld up a three level platform so it all drains by itself?

Does this sound good - or should I keep looking / asking?

New to all of AG, so sorry if I ask dumb questions.

Cheer,

Kuzzy

Do you plan to batch or fly sparge? I may be ( and often am) wrong, but you won't have enough room in a 50 litre esky to batch sparge double batches.

 

[warra48]

Do you plan to batch or fly sparge? I may be ( and often am) wrong, but you won't have enough room in a 50 litre esky to batch sparge double batches.

There will be just enough room if you do a mash out and two batch sparges.

I use a 25 litre cooler for a mash tun, and it is big enough for a 23 litre batch up to about 1.060 OG. Anything bigger, and I have to downsize the batch.

If you wish to do double batches, you would be better to look at a larger than 50 litre mashtun, to give you flexibility and ease of use.

Don't know about fly sparging, have never done it.

 

[shawnheiderich]

Bigger Kettle for true (46L) double batches.

Shawn